


Candlelit Wishes

by Colby



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-25
Updated: 2011-02-25
Packaged: 2017-10-15 22:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colby/pseuds/Colby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you light a candle and make a wish, angels will grant it. James Norrington teaches his daughter a tradition that Elizabeth taught him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candlelit Wishes

**Author's Note:**

> **It all belongs to Disney, T &T, Mickey, you know.**

James Norrington reached down for the tiny hand of his four-year-old daughter, Charlotte, as the pair strolled along the sandy shores of Port Royal. The calm waves changed the brilliant white sand to a deep brown – the very color of Charlotte's hair – as the sea washed over their bare feet and settled into the shore. In the distance, James could see the ships in the harbor, swaying in the gentle swells, the light wind singing its song through the rigging. Dusk was approaching. The sky was tinged pink and orange, bouncing off the pale blue of the sea. And with it, a clear memory came springing back to his mind, of this very part of the shore five years earlier, strolling with his new wife, Elizabeth, both carrying lit candles set in paper boats carefully in their hands.

James clutched the candle he was holding; and forced back the hot tears that were threatening his eyes, determined not to burden his daughter with seeing her Papa cry. Elizabeth had left him and Charlotte several weeks previously, and he missed her dearly. Oftentimes he had considered going to search for and see her, but he had quickly silenced these thoughts. Charlotte was much too young for him to leave her as well, as Elizabeth had left them. And, as much as he loved his wife, he knew that she would not return. Looking down at his small daughter, he only vaguely noticed his own green eyes. All he saw was Elizabeth's face – the face that had the ability to capsize a thousand ships, to break a thousand hearts, and to kill a thousand men.

He gazed out upon the horizon. _Elizabeth…_

\---

 _"My mother always said that if you make a wish and send a lit candle onto the sea, the angels in Heaven will grant it," Elizabeth explained in her soft voice. She hiked up her already wet skirts, crouching down to carefully place her burning candle into the gently flowing waves._

 _There was no breeze, and the flame stood as still and straight upon its wick, as if it were a soldier on guard, a soldier not unlike the sort that James commanded._

 _"And have your wishes come true?" He inquired, setting his own candle down into the turquoise sea. The pair, candles and people, merely swayed in the water until they set sail in time with the current._

 _"Yes," Elizabeth's face took on a sad smile, "I had wished that we could, one day, move away from England to somewhere more exotic. But then Mother died, and I quickly gave up on any wishes. Then one day Father came home and said that were being transferred here to Port Royal. O, how happy I was!" Her beautiful face lit up once more at the memory._

 _"I am shocked that you had not wished that you could run away with pirates," A bitter taste had entered his mouth as he said those words._

 _She smiled her secret smile. "I was not always that infatuated with pirates, James."_

 _It was at that moment that he realized that he still had a lot to learn about his new wife._

 _"What did you wish for, James?" She looked up at him, her brown eyes questioning._

 _"I did not make a wish," He assured her, smirking, "All my wishes have already come true." He gazed down at her, his own eyes connected with her beautiful brown orbs._

 _"Really? How so?"_

 _In response, he leaned down and crashed his lips to hers. She tasted like salt and berries, as she always did, and he had always been surprised that he liked it. The waves crashed around the couple, nearly knocking them over. James held her around the waist to stop her from falling into the sand._

 _In their moments of sweet distraction, neither noticed the candles gliding over the water away from them, the flames dancing with its carrier's movements, the light of the flame competing with the moonlight._

\---

James looked down at his daughter again. She seemed wary of releasing the candle into the sea, still grasping onto the hull of the paper boat with two small fingers. Grinning, he crouched down next to her and placed his hand over hers, helping her sit the candle in the water beside his. "There you go, love," He assured her.

"Thank you, Papa." Charlotte gave him the same sad smile that had belonged to her mother.

He stood up and took her hand again. "What did you wish for, darling?"

"I wished Mama is happy in Heaven," She murmured softly, tears filling her eyes.

James swallowed back a sob. "As did I, love."


End file.
